Need 600 words. You must address all of the following. You cannot see your classmates' posts until you have posted your initial post. Make sure you go to your group to post your responses. Make sure you follow the discussion guidelines and grading rubric in all discussion posts. You must connect your post to the Volti text (see guidelines and rubric) and cite the text appropriately. Each student will be placed into a discussion groups of about 15-20 participants. You must be actively engaged and participate in discussions each week in order to earn discussion board points. If you do not see your assigned group by the end of Week 1, please let me know through the Course Questions link. It takes some time to get the groups set up. So you will not see your group for a couple of days after the semester starts.

You are required to participate in all 3 discussions about the weekly course topics throughout the session. Each week's discussion involves an initial post from you due by Wednesday at 11:59pm, which responds to one of the instructor threads (there may be more than one thread listed). Choose only one thread to reply to for your initial post. You are then required to post at least 2 follow-up responses to your peers (on any of the threads) due no later than Saturday at 6:00pm. The goal is to build a discussion off of each other's ideas and responses.

There are requirements for lengths of posts for both the initial and follow-up responses. Initial posts should be 300 words or more, and peer responses are 100 words or more. You will receive a discussion grade each week worth up to 50 points possible - up to 30 points for the initial post, and up to 10 points for each of the two peer responses. Follow the grading rubric for each post. The goals for group discussions are for students to be cooperative, collaborative, supportive, and positive members of the group. You are expected to critically analyze the information posed within the context of the weekly material. It is imperative that students work together each week and post in a timely manner in order to have strong discussions.

Discussion Requirements: During each assigned week, you must submit at least 3 total posts (1 initial post and 2 peer responses to other students) during the Sunday – Saturday at 6:00pm timeframe. Your initial post is due no later than Wednesday night by 11:59pm. Your peer responses are due by Saturday at 6:00pm. No posts will be accepted after the discussion board closes. Timeliness of your posts is considered for part of your grade. See the grading criteria below. You may post more than two peer responses if you would like, and the first two will be used for grading purposes. From Sunday morning at 12:30am MST until Saturday at 6:00pm MST, you will have access to the discussion board with at least one thread created by the instructor. There may be 2 threads – if there are, then you have a choice on what you want to write about during the week. Choose one of the instructor threads and reply with your initial post. For follow-up responses, respond to any reply in any thread. If there is only one prompt, even if it has multiple parts, you must address all aspects of the prompt.

In each instructor thread, there will be a discussion starter that may include a mini-assignment for you to complete. The discussion starter information is linked to the week’s required materials. You are required to discuss the week’s readings/videos in relation to the discussion questions and any other information presented in the instructor thread. Be sure to use various course materials in each of your posts (for instance, at least three course concepts should be discussed in your initial post for a distinguished score). However, do not use straight quotes from the text! Paraphrase and reference the text/article that you use to show that you understand and apply the materials.

Grading Criteria for Group Discussions - Initial responses and peer responses are graded according to the rubric below. Please note that: Your response to the weekly prompt is worth up to 30 points and it must be submitted by Wednesday at 11:59pm. This post must be at least 300 words and include correct, substantive discussion of various course concepts (at least 3!) Your peer responses are worth up to 10 points each. Each peer response must be at least 100 words and include substantive, correct discussion of at least one course concept.

Discussion Board Grading Rubric - Initial post is substantive. It is connected to the course material thoughtfully and thoroughly. Various course materials are correctly used a minimum of 3 times. At least 300 words with very few writing errors. Paraphrases, cites materials, and does not use direct quotes. 30 points. Response to classmate is substantive, referencing course material thoughtfully and thoroughly. Course materials are correctly used at least once in the post. At least 100 words and few writing errors. Paraphrases, cites materials, and does not use direct quotes. 10 points. The grading rubric is posted in the grade center and is used interactively for grading each of your posts. You will be able to see your feedback on the grading rubric. If you have questions about the discussions and how they are graded after you have read through the guidelines document, be sure to post them to the Course Questions discussion board.

Some important and helpful notes: To cite course materials as sources in your discussions, you must format your in-text citation using APA style formatting. In addition, you must include the page number from which the information came. APA style formatting does not require the use of page numbers, but I do. If you refer to videos or lectures, you may write the video or lecture title in parentheses. To make each of your discussion weeks manageable, you can subscribe to the discussion board. If you subscribe to the discussion board, Blackboard will send you an email to notify you of new responses. This will allow you to continue on with your day without having to constantly check the board for new postings. You will just have to check your email. It is recommended that you check the discussion starter early in the week so that you can complete the mini-assignments, watch videos, read articles, etc, and have time to formulate your initial response by Wednesday night.

Review the Student Conduct section in the syllabus. Disrespectful, threatening, or offensive posts will be removed and are subject to harsh sanctions. If you notice a post that does not comply with the policy, please send me an email alerting me to it. You should write your posts in a Word document first to spell-check, proofread, save, and spend adequate time formulating your responses. If you write directly in the discussion board, there is a possibility of a connection interruption, and you may lose your work. No extensions are granted for lost work. Also be sure to save screenshots of your submissions.